Design pattern Library - Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design - page 326

Participants
n Targets represent unresolved tasks.
n Progress represents the player's progress toward a goal.
n A task either reduces the number of targets or produces progress.
n A feedback mechanism makes the game more difficult as the player progresses
toward the goal or reduces the number of targets.
collaborations
The task reduces targets, produces progress, or does both. The feedback mechanic
increases the difficulty of the task as the player gets closer to achieving the goal.
consequences
Escalating challenge is based on a simple positive feedback loop affecting the dif-
ficulty of the game. Its mechanism quickly adjusts the difficulty of the game to the
skill level of the player. If failure at the task ends the game, escalating challenge
ensures a very quick game.
implementation
The task in a game that implements the escalating challenge pattern is typically
affected by player skill, especially when the escalating challenge pattern makes up
the most of the game's core mechanics. When the task is a random or determin-
istic mechanic, players will have no control over the game's progress. Only when
the escalating challenge pattern is part of a more complex game system and play-
ers have some sort of indirect control over the chance of success does a random or
deterministic mechanic become viable. Using multiplayer dynamic mechanisms is
an option but probably works better in a more complex game system as well.
examples
Space Invaders is a classic example of the escalating challenge pattern. In Space
Invaders , the player needs to destroy all the invading aliens before they can reach
the bottom of the screen. Every time the player destroys an alien, all other aliens
speed up a little, making it more difficult for the player to shoot them.
Pac-Man is another example. In Pac-Man , the task is to eat all the dots in a level, while
the chasing ghosts make it more and more difficult to get to the last remaining dots
(see Chapter 5, “Machinations,” for a detailed discussion and diagram of Pac-Man ).
related Patterns
By combining escalating challenge with static friction or dynamic friction , a game can
be created that quickly matches its difficulty to the ability of the player.